In recent years a national discussion has raged around the role of women in American society, a discussion dominated by women from the professional upper-middle class. These spokeswomen for the women's liberation movement assume that women of all classes share their discontent with the traditional sex-related division of labor in the society. While little is known about the response of working class women to the demands of the women's liberation movement, our prior research suggests that white, working class women may value and support their traditional role in the family structure. Whether such attitudes indicate a positive assertion of a valued identity or a defensive response to a lack of alternatives is unknown. Is the rejection of the idea that liberation lies outside the home related to the structure of working class marriages? Is it in part a function of the nature of work available to women with only a high school education? Given these unknowns, our purpose will be to investigate the social role definitions and role expectations for women in white, working class families; to understand how these women perceive their own lives and their roles within the family structure; to learn about their aspirations and their self-image; to discover how those differ from professional upper-middle class women; and, finally, to discover how white, working class women respond to the demands and rhetoric of the women's liberation movement. We will interview 100 white, working class women, and, for comparative purposes, 30 white, professional upper-middle class women, using in-depth, focused interviews. In addition, we will live for one week each with six white, working class families. The significance of this research lies in the fact that differing role definitions and role expectations for women in the different subcultures of the white community have important implications for social policy. It would be well to know in advance how those socially structured phenomena affect political and social attitudes so that public policy can be intelligently formulated.